I’ve mentioned this site before, but Wordcount.org keeps track of the top used English words in the world (possibly from an English, English perspective [UK]). I thought it was be kind of fun to translate these into how Koreans say it phonetically in their language. The top 10 aren’t used that often (most of them) or there is less of an equivalent in Korean…so I thought I’d focus on the next 10.

This is long overdue. I kept a log for my own, but these words/phrases in Korean were things I had to learn over the past two years. They’ll be primarily Korean words I find (as an intermediate speaker of the Korean langauge) interesting. So, you may not…anyhoo, it’s my blog so I get to dictate that, right? 🙂

넵 — pronounced “Nep”. It means “YES” like you were answering a military commander & saluting them. It’s basically saying “yes” in a somewhat sarcastic manner when it feels like someone is bossing you around in Korean. The real easy phrase for “yes” in Korean is simply 네 or “Neh”.Continue reading →

Spelled out in an English friendly manner, you say hello in a casual way by saying “Ahn-young”. This version of Hello in Korean is used between friends and family. It’s definitely not something you want to say to someone you just met. Continue reading →

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Just noticed one of the biggest search referrals to the site is “writing korean thank you.” Well, saying or writing the word is not as simple as “thank you” in English. In contrast to the two syllables used to give someone appreciation or praise for something that they received, you have to say the Korean version in about 5 syllables. Loosely in English phonetic version, it’s: Continue reading →